Very slow progress, much ripping out of this pattern - it just won't stick in my mind, like patterns used to. And, unlike in years past, the graphic representation was so confusing that I had to write out the pattern, simple as it is! But my streak of sheer cussedness has kicked in, and I'll stick with this till the wool is used up (another 3 balls to go -- this scarf will be about a metre long).The book is Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs, published in 1972 - I used it a lot in the 1980s for making up my own combinations of cabled designs, real knitting from scratch -- where are all those sweaters now, the ones knit on the bus to and from work?

25 December 2006

24 December 2006

Carols in the courtyard of BMA House --cheery decorations round the corner in Woburn Walk --and my own windowbox sprightliness --But I miss my "fairy lights" round the walls -- took them down during the repainting in the summer, and put them somewhere safe, somewhere very safe ... and secret.

23 December 2006

"Can you knit me this hat, Mom?" Sure, no problem - apart from the type and colours of wool on hand.With Icelanic (Lopi) wool and 5mm needles, cast on 88 in the contrast, k2 p2 alternating colours every 2 rounds, decrease at 8 places, as shown. Then make another, and another... and a beret or two ...This week I've been obsessed with knitting hats, and watched a lot of tv while doing so. And read -- the book has to stay open on its own; knitting doesn't always need a lot of attention, but it does need two hands.

Turmoil, dislocation, and a happy ending -- with sharp observations: "Lou Ann is making bold changes in her life: she recently got a job at an exercise salon called Fat Chance and now wears Lycra outfits in color combinations that seem dangerous, like the poisonous frongs that inhabit the Amazon" and the woman who, finishing a phone call, "backs up several stitches through her quilted thoughts".

14 December 2006

Lunchtime walk ... to the remainder bookshop. Some amusing collage by Jiri Kolar--chopping board and dressed appleand in another book an enormous foldout photo of a burnt forest in the snowtoo panoramic for my camera to cope with in one frame.

07 December 2006

Once my favourite department store, known like the back of my hand, John Lewis Oxford Street has had an image update, moving everything around and putting escalators centrally. Fabrics (such as they are) and haberdashery depts are now on the fourth floor. There seems to be less of a range of stock throughout -- but rather more in the cosmetics/perfume area, which is ground floor centre front, just like in every department store. Well, you gotta change to keep up...

06 December 2006

The dyed domette is cut to exact size, so there's none in the seams --Smaller pieces can be mounted on foamboard, but those interesting fringey bits disappear --This is covered by a piece of plain fabric, attached with bondaweb. With minimal ironing, the foamboard doesn't seem to be affected.

05 December 2006

Here's the one that got away --Layers of coloured net, the background intensively machine stitched in straight lines, about12 years ago. Strange how the same colours and "stitch vocabulary" keep coming up.

01 December 2006

Thanks to the upcoming "Print Sale" at Dissenters Gallery this weekend - and a few other deadlines - I haven't turned on the computer at home all week --- how very old-fashioned! So, no new uploaded photos - or even access to those already there. But the new machine has had a lot of use.

24 November 2006

the sewing table, with its useful drawers, also holds many memories and is fine when the machine is used without its extension table. But with the extension, the machine has to sit further back and the knee lift can't swing far enough to work - and it certainly does have to travel! - the leg makes a 45degree angle to the body when operating the knee lift.I nearly gave up on the machine immediately -it beeped every time I touched it. Fortunately it's easy to turn that off. Why does everything beep at you nowadays?

23 November 2006

The background will show through the holes - but is this one too dull? Hard to tell here; the colours don't come through well, perhaps because of the shiny fabrics. I'm hoping to sew it together this weekend.

16 November 2006

Starting at the corner (to the left) and proceeding roughly northwards, we have an estate agent, the deli, a betting shop --a minicab place, a Turkish florist, the Cypriot greengrocer, a shop selling rather nasty cheap clothes --then a grocery store with a post office in the back, followed by a fishmonger who supplies the Mauritian fish restaurant (Chez Liline) next door. Then there's an internet caf and another cheap clothes shop before you get to the vast bulk of Tesco, the grocery store you love to hate (latest innovation: self check-outs, which talk to you relentlessly).

In the previous block is "The Fabric Store of Stroud Green Road", threatened again with closure, but meanwhile with an eclectic selection, including polyester sheers at £1.50 a metreand some "street furniture".

Tuesday is Drawing Day - why not join in, wherever you are, any or every Tuesday? Find somewhere that has interesting things - it needn't be a museum, it could be your own home! - and just draw, using whatever media you want. Ask some friends to join you, then have a nice lunch.

The London group has grown to the point where it's getting difficult to find a cafe table large enough, and reluctantly I must say that it is no longer open to new members.

7 May - V&A, medieval galleries

14 May - Horniman (gardens?)

21 May - Wallace Collection

28 May - Southwark Cathedral

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I had work in "A Letter in Mind" at the Oxo Gallery, September 2017 and again in 2018.